Greater Oversight of Proxy Advisors

For more than a decade, NIRI and the Shareholder Communications Coalition have been urging the Securities and Exchange Commission to regulate proxy advisory firms to ensure greater proxy report accuracy, better disclosure of conflicts of interest, and fair treatment of all issuers. In a 2018 NIRI member survey on advocacy priorities, 76 percent of respondents said that greater regulatory oversight over proxy advisors was “important” or “extremely important.”

In April 2019, the coalition submitted a letter to the SEC that outlined various recommendations for regulating proxy firms. The letter urged the SEC to require proxy firms to allow all issuers to review report drafts for five business days before issuance and comment on the accuracy of the factual statements in the report and the underlying assumptions used to develop voting recommendations. NIRI submitted a separate comment letter to the SEC that emphasizes the importance of providing a draft review opportunity for all issuers. In NIRI's 2018 advocacy survey of IR practitioners, 95 percent of respondents expressed support for a draft review mandate.

In November 2018, NIRI submitted a letter to the SEC that outlined how the Commission could use its existing authority to provide more oversight over proxy advisors.

In an August 2017 comment letter, NIRI expressed concern over the automated proxy voting systems used by investment managers and asked the SEC to investigate whether those systems are consistent with agency guidance. In October 2018, the American Council for Capital Formation (ACCF) published a report that indicates that a significant number of ISS clients are using automated voting platforms to vote soon after ISS reports are published. In November 2018, ACCF published a second report that provides more evidence of the prevalence of "robo-voting."

In a December 2015 comment letter, NIRI expressed concern over the selective disclosure of excerpts from proxy advisory reports and asked the SEC to require the public disclosure of full proxy advisor reports when excerpts are leaked into the public domain.

NIRI encourages its members to bring specific examples of proxy report inaccuracies and other concerns to the SEC's Division of Corporation Finance. Members should also may share their concerns confidentially with NIRI staff.

Educational Efforts on Capitol Hill
NIRI also has urged lawmakers to address proxy advisors. Along with a broad coalition of corporate groups, NIRI has supported H.R. 4015, "The Corporate Governance Reform and Transparency Act," a bill sponsored by Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) and Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), that would have directed the SEC to regulate proxy advisors and mandate a review process so all issuers can review draft proxy reports. This bill passed U.S. House in December 2017, but did not pass the Senate before the 2018 midterm elections. The Senate Banking Committee held a hearing on this bill and other governance bills in June 2018, and NIRI submitted a statement in support of proxy advisor reform.

In addition, dozens of NIRI members personally shared their concerns over proxy advisors during meetings with House and Senate staffers as part of NIRI's Leadership Week events in September 2017 and September 2018.

Additional ResourcesHere are links to comment letters, testimony, and reports that NIRI and other corporate groups have prepared on proxy advisory firms:

In November 2016, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report on proxy advisory firms. NIRI was one of the organizations that provided input to the GAO researchers who prepared this report.

Proxy System Modernization

NIRI and the Shareholder Communications Coalitionalso have asked the SEC to address the outdated U.S. proxy system. In NIRI's 2018 member survey on advocacy, 58 percent of respondents said that proxy system modernization was “important” or “extremely important.”

In April 2019, NIRI and the coalition submitted a letter to the SEC that outlined interim steps that the agency could take to improve the proxy system. In November 2018, the SEC hosted a roundtable on proxy issues; NIRI wrote a comment letter that included various suggested improvements to the proxy system (see pp. 4-7).

In an April 2015 comment letter, NIRI and the coalition called on the SEC to repeal its outdated OBO-NOBO (Objecting Beneficial Owner/Non-Objecting Beneficial Owner) rules that make it more difficult and costly for companies to communicate with their "street name" shareholders. The coalition reiterated these points in an April 2016 comment letter in response to the SEC's rulemaking on transfer agents.

In 2010, the SEC published a concept release on the U.S. proxy system that addressed OBO-NOBO, "empty voting" and "over voting," vote confirmation, and other proxy voting issues. Here is a link to the comment letter that NIRI submitted on these issues. NIRI also prepared a comment letter in 2013 regarding proposed changes to proxy distribution fees.